With SpaceX now set to receive its $2.6 billion slice of the manned space travel pie, Elon Musk has sensed the time is right to set the Mars agenda. He argues that a colony on Mars would just be for thrills or exploration, but a necessary safeguard for human life at large.

It must be the season for exploding rockets: The US Army’s experimental Advanced Hypersonic Weapon, which will eventually be able to bomb anywhere in the world within an hour, exploded just four seconds after launch in Alaska. Similar to last week’s self-detonating SpaceX rocket, the US Department of Defense detected an error within the system shortly after launch, and thus decided to detonate the entire thing rather than risk any extra collateral damage. No one was injured by the incident, though falling debris did damage the rocket’s Kodiak Launch Complex.

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has confirmed that it is developing the SR-72 spy plane. The successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, which was capable of Mach 3.5, the SR-72 will be a hypersonic unmanned aircraft capable of Mach 6, or just over 4,500 mph. At hypersonic speeds, the SR-72 will be able to traverse any continent in around an hour — meaning the US military can strike or surveil any location on Earth in about an hour.

NASA has successfully demonstrated a manufacturing technique that will allow the creation of large, commercial hybrid flying wing aircraft. These planes would use half the fuel of conventional, tubular jet airliners, and would provider a quieter ride for passengers on board.

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